The Crispin Colloquy

DW,
Many happy returns for yesterday (Friday). Heck if I'd known I'd have baked a cake..
Charlie Dunn never started his own business 'til he was 75(?) so you've got a ways to go yet - thank God.
Anyway, I hope you had/have a great day.

More years to y'awl.
Tom O'Sullivan.
Ps - do you think there's a tie in between the present hot discussion on chasing wrinkles out of a bit of ol' leather and your birthday!

(Message edited by Tomo on February 02, 2007)

DW,
Happy Birthday!

Kaspar

"You load sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt..."

I want to thank each and every one of you for the kind wishes on my birthday. I actually expected some sort of cracks about fat, beady-eyed, burrowing rodents.

At the risk of opening my mouth and confirming that I'm a blithering idiot at 4:30 in the morning (or evening), my wife has informed me that I am not 62 today but rather 61.

Oh well, that's just that much less debt...but I was sure looking forward to retiring and drawing all that SS in two years (not!)

Now...I raise a glass of Special Reserve Lagavulin, and in sonorous and dulcet tones not unlike those of Sean Connery, I give toast to all of you on the Crispin Colloquy..."Lang may yer lum reek!"

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

You are in you 62nd year on the planet. many returns on the day.
Tom

Happy Birthday, just remember if your shooting for 192 you'll outlive social security so keep those fingers limber enough to inseam and keep the colloquy going!

This Sunday, March 16th a few of us in New Enlgand are getting together for brunch in Pawtucket RI and visit an old shoe shop that is being liquidated. Anyone interested in joining us please let me know.
For those not able to make it, I'll try to post pictures of what's being sold with the contact information for the seller.

Rob

[center]NEWS[/size] FLASH[/blink][/b][/center]


All,

I am proud to announce that I have just posted Golding's Volume I on the HCC Homepage under the "Guild Library" rubric.

I really think that Golding's eight volume series...and this volume in particular...is the most useful and the most comprehensive shoemaking text ever written...with maybe Thornton a close second.

Volume I addresses just about every subject that a bespoke shoemaker would need to make shoes. It even includes a pattern for making heel stiffeners--something that has typically been overlooked in almost every subsequent attempt to cover this material.

I have tried to be as faithful as I could be to both the material and the format...even, sometimes incorporating small errors that arose because of the hand-drawn nature of the illustrations....while at the same time clarifying, when I could, the photos and illustrations so that they would be not only accessible but reproducible. Yet nothing was omitted or changed.

This particular volume required that diagrams, standards, and patterns be scanned and "re-drawn" to maintain and in some instances actually achieve clarity.

As with previous volumes, this is in pdf format. There are now several free pdf readers on the internet but there is a link to the Adobe Acrobat Reader on the HCC Homepage associated with Volume I. Because it is in pdf format, it is entirely accurate and faithful to my original copy and will print out accurately--what you see is what you get. But it can be read on-screen as well. As with the previous two volumes the text is entirely "recognized," it is searchable, it contains hyperlinks from the index and Table of Contents to relevant chapters and topics within the text.

I started "transcribing" this volume almost two years ago...in June of 2007.

It was a big job....nearly two years every morning before breakfast. I think it will be my last. I sincerely hope that others will find this useful.I wish I wish had had access to this kind of material when I was getting started 35+ years ago.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

I think there is a problem. I only get a very small file that won't open. A link file maybe?

DW, all I can say to this is thank you I have some idea of the amount of work this takes, and as with seemingly everything you do an enormous amount of care and attention to detail has gone into these.

I'm still to make a pair of modern shoes and this sort of resource is absolutely invaluable to people like me.

Rick, the URL you want to get the file is:

http://www.thehcc.org/Golding_1.pdf

The link from the library page points to http://www.thehcc.org/Golding_I.pdf rather than ...1.pdf

You computer gurus never cease to amaze me! And DW, your dedication and stick-to-it-ivness with these ought to earn you a medal. I agree with DW's assessment of Golding--this is "the" book for the iconic, classic, English hand-sewn shoe of the last century, so if that's your muse, this is the book for you.

DW,

I've been looking for this ever since I was told about the section on last making. I am happy to see that it looks as fine a read as I was hoping for.

Thank you for your hard work,

Erick

Alasdair, Rick, all,

I have fixed the URL problem the link now points to the correct file (Golding_I.pdf).

sorry about that...

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

BTW,

I intended to remark in my original description that one of the great benefits of "tracing" or re-drawing each of the diagrams is that they can be magnified or "zoomed" up to extraordinary levels and still remain clear and sharp--none of the pixelization that occurs with a straight scan.

Try it...on the illustrations even on the text if you're wanting a little better level of "readability."

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

DW,

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your hard work.[img]http://www.thehcc.org/forum/images/old_smilies/proud.gif"%20ALT=":O[/img]

DW:

Thank you very much for your effort. I am very excited to read all of this book.

Lance

All,

Hoo hum...another day another dollar...

I got some very welcome and constructive feedback on my posting of Golding Volume I. Among the comments was a noting of numerous punctuation and spelling errors especially in the first couple of chapters.

I plead guilty as charged and offer the explanation that the software I am using has gotten very flakey lately (bit rot?) and I failed to spell check and proofread those initial chapters. Most of the errors were OCR errors.

The good news is that I have now corrected the problems (or tried), and I have also reduced the size of the file download from 10mb's to about 4mb's.

I would recommend that "early adopters" download the new version.

If anyone discovers any other punctuation or spelling mistakes (or any other problems), please contact me and if they are serious or I get enough of them, I will upload another new version.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

DW,

Thanks for the extraordinary effort on Golding 1. Not many people would take the trouble to trace diagrams and do other tweaks on any book, let alone an obscure shoemaker's tome.

I'm looking forward to leafing through it's bits and bytes, at my leisure.

I want to thank everyone for their interest and kind words. Theoretically, I could do another book and another and another...it gives me something to do and keeps me out of trouble.

But when you come right down to it there are very few books that have ever been written that are as comprehensive as Golding. If you download only volumes I and IV you have nearly everything needed to make shoes--from measuring the foot to hand carving a last to pattern design to lasting techniques and sequences.

Nothing else ever written...that I am aware of...is so comprehensive, so understandable, and old enough to be in the public domain.

I chose to digitalize volumes I, IV and VI because together they represent as complete a discourse on shoemaking as there is.

Anyway, there they are...enjoy.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

DW,
Admittedly computer illiterate, how do I download the Golding PDF file?

Cheers,

JesseLee

Jesse Lee,

Go to the HCC Homepage (not the forum); go to "the Guild Library"; about halfway down, you'll see Golding Vol. I (underlined and in green). Depending on what browser you are using, right click on the title and select "Save Target As" or "Save Link Target as...". You'll be asked where you want to save the file to, and then the download will begin.

The other option is, if you have Adobe Acrobat as a "helper application" (many people do), to simply click on the target (green and underlined). This will downlaod the book and open it in Acrobat Reader At that point you may save the book from within Acrobat...to a place on your harddrive.

Hope that helps...

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

DW

That helped. What a read... It will be a boon to the makers here. Thank you old son for that contribution.

Cheers,

JesseLee

Hey DW,

After coming from a Chemo week end this was good news that you have completed such a mission.I as well want to give you a hardy Thanks............. for your endeavor and sticktutiveness.

Ed

Jesse Lee, Ed,

I'm glad if it finds a welcome audience. Only here...

Enjoy...

DW

My apologies for not posting this before. As the saying goes better late than never.

I was personally delighted to be able to download the pdf copy of Golding volume 1. I have had the other seven books of the set on my bookshelf for some years but that one has proved hard to get.

Having said that I was truly amazed to find out what you had produced. I know from personal experience how hard it is to produce written material about pattern cutting, in particular. Not only does it require a number of high grade drawings but when working with inch measurements, the text contains many fractions. Some of these are not in the typeface and have to be produced manually, such as three thirtyseconds and five sixteenths. With the right tools and lots of effort, one can achieve most things but it takes a great deal of time and a lot of dedication.

Then I tried to zoom-in on one of the detailed drawings (for those not familiar with Adobe Acrobat, try Ctrl+). I found that even when enlarged 10 times, one still gets a perfect drawing with no pixellation. To get this result you must have manually traced every line from every original scanned diagram. Wow!

What a valuable resource.

Many, many thanks.

Frank Jones - HCC Member
frank.jones@noblefootwear.com